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East Asia · The Sixteen Kingdoms and the Northern and Southern dynasties

Former Liang

320–376

Former Liang (320–376) was a largely Han-Chinese state in the Hexi Corridor (Gansu), centered on Guzang (Wuwei), ruled by the Zhang family who nominally maintained loyalty to Jin. A refuge of Chinese culture during the northern chaos, it prospered on Silk Road trade.

Existed
320–376
Shown on the map
AD 324–377
Peak area
306k km²
Region
East Asia

Overview

Former Liang (320–376) was a largely Han-Chinese state in the Hexi Corridor (Gansu), centered on Guzang (Wuwei), ruled by the Zhang family who nominally maintained loyalty to Jin. A refuge of Chinese culture during the northern chaos, it prospered on Silk Road trade. It was conquered by the Former Qin in 376.

Common questions

What was Former Liang?
Former Liang (320–376) was a largely Han-Chinese state in the Hexi Corridor (Gansu), centered on Guzang (Wuwei), ruled by the Zhang family who nominally maintained loyalty to Jin. A refuge of Chinese culture during the northern chaos, it prospered on Silk Road trade.
When did Former Liang exist?
Former Liang existed 320–376. On this map it is drawn AD 324–377.
How large was Former Liang?
At its greatest extent drawn on this map, Former Liang covered about 306,000 km². That is the largest area the border data gives it across the years it is drawn, not necessarily its greatest extent in history.

Sources

This compendium cites its sources once for the whole document rather than per territory. Its bibliography names the English Wikipedia article for each polity as the basis of these profiles, supplemented by Encyclopaedia Britannica, chinaknowledge.de, the World History Encyclopedia, museum and university sources, and the academic works it lists. The article this entry is anchored on:

This entry was last updated .

This entry was researched and drafted with AI from the sources above, and has not been reviewed by a historian. How entries are made

Text available under CC BY-SA 4.0: reuse it with a credit to The World Through Time and a link to this page. Passages drawing on the Wikipedia articles listed above are also licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 by their contributors.

Border geometry for the map itself comes from Cliopatria v0.12 (Seshat Global History Databank, CC-BY-4.0).

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